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Sunday, May 16, 2021
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Verizon Releases Sniffer Apps – Locate Your Smartphone Anywhere Anytime
Verizon has followed the same old track as that of Apple’s iPhone. The carrier has launched its new application that helps you to track down your smartphone. I guess, thieves are going to have a hard time in trying to keep their new possessions a secret.
However, if you’re living somewhere remote, where the most threatening person is your next door creepy neighbor, then you better get this application. This app constantly runs in the background (nope, doesn’t slow down your cellphone’s processor) and monitors your activities. In case you’ve forgotten your smartphone or someone snatched it right off your tiny hands, then you can log on to Verizon’s website.
From here on, just send a remote lockdown command to your device and it will be a useless piece of plastic. You can also locate your device’s position through the GPRS tracker. Pretty cool huh?
Google TV to Reveal Its Partners
On Monday Google revealed its content partners for the latest television technology. But among those partners you will not be able to see the three major US networks, such as NBX, ANC and CBS.
Google TV will come with Google’s Chrome browser which means that TV watchers will be able to surf the Internet by means of television screens.
Google signed an agreement with Turner Broadcasting in order users could view such channels as CNN, TNT, as well as Cartoon Network by means of Google TV. Moreover, Google TV will provide HBO programming and it will offer access to content libraries of such video companies as Netflix and Amazon.
The Google TV will be available this month. The announcement of Google came after Apple released it Apple TV device offered for $99. With the device users are able to download movies. In fact, the device offers less content compared to Google’s TV. It is explained by the fact that Apple demands high commissions from media companies.
Google TV: A Swiss-Army Approach to Internet TV
Cisco’s product, like Apple TV andRoku, is about doing one thing. All there devices compete with Revue, because it does many things:
- Like Roku and Apple TV, it’s a way to watch movies and listen to music;
- It supports not only services Google has partnered with, such as Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand, but just about any video on the Web;
- It attempts to meld Internet video, live broadcast video, and DVR video into one seamless entertainment extravaganza;
- It integrates with Dish Network boxes at a deeper level–it can control them and search recorded videos;
- It lets you browse Web sorts of all sorts using the built-in Chrome browser;
- It uses Logitech’s Harmony technology to let you control all your living-room gizmos;
- It offers iOS and Android apps that let you use your smartphone as a remote control;
- If you spend $150 for an optional Webcam, it provides ūmi-like HD videoconferencing (although at 720p rather than Cisco’s 1080p);
- It’ll let you download and install Android apps (but not until early 2011, when Google makes its TV Android Market available).
Revue’s pricetag is also explained in part by its remote control–which, from what I’ve seen so far, is one of my favorite things about the box so far. It’s a wireless, notebook-like keyboard with no-compromises QWERTY. After having experienced a couple of gazillion TV devices that force you to enter text using painful on-screen keyboards, I’m really happy to see Logitech give you the input device you really want as part of the package. (It’s also selling an optional mini-QWERTY keyboard.)
Logitech is releasing a Swiss Army Knife of a product into a market otherwise mostly populated by less versatile kitchen knives. (In the case of Apple TV, which doesn’t yet have a full slate of TV episodes and movies, its sort of a kitchen knife which can only slice cetain kinds of vegetables.) I’m reserving judgment until I get hands-on time with with one, but I like the fact that Revue is so very far from being an Apple TV wannabee–it’s a choice, not an echo, and it’s going to be fun to see which type of Internet TV box consumers gravitate towards. (And of course it’s still not clear whether teeming masses of them will gravitate towards any TV box at all.)
Logitech and Amazon are taking orders for Revue starting today; it’ll show up in stores in two or three weeks. Check out more details on Google TV, including a peek at the interface, at Google’s site.
Attack Of The Grey Buttons: Sony's Google TV remote spotted.. on TV
If you thought that Google TV would make watching the internet on your television as simple as clicking a button, you were half-right. It does involve a button. Actually, 81 of them
Oh, that? Sony's remote control for Google TV. Handy, isn't it?
Pardon? Yes, now that you point it out, it's true to say that all that's missing is the aerial sticking out of the top, and it really would look like a remote control. For a jumbo jet.
Well, don't say that you weren't warned. Google TV was shown off withhuge amounts of razzmatazz but worryingly little detail about how you'd actually operate it.
At the time we noted that
Google's approach does have potential. It has the backing of Sony, which will use Google's software in a new line of TV sets that will appear before Christmas, and users who don't want to buy a new TV will be able to get a Logitech set-top box instead. Also, it will have a head start in apps because it will run Android apps from Google's store and third-party marketplaces.
The problem with trying to do the internet from your television has always been the same one: TV sets have extremely low interaction needs. You have channels and you have sound. And a power button. OK, and often an input selection. If you start adjusting the colour balance and contrast, you are unusual, and you'll do it on average once in the lifetime of the set.
Computers, and the internet, require a lot of interaction. URLs don't type themselves. Many sites, including YouTube, will ask for a username and password, and those are a real pain to enter on any sort of non-QWERTY device. And how do you control a mouse on a screen that's ten feet away?
This seems to be Sony's answer. We count 81 buttons, not including the circular ones at the top and the central buttons. That is a hell of a lot of buttons. Ergonomics? No, next door down.
The URLs and interaction problem is why the documentation for Google TV admitted coyly that "all input devices for Google TV will have QWERTY keyboards" - as we pointed out last month - but also that that "users needs interactions that are fast and easy to do – at a distance, with one hand, in the dark."
Engadget managed to grab this telling picture of the Sony effort when Google TV was featured on ABC's Nightline. Though Engadget is excited about it: "everything you'd need to rock the web and video all at once", it enthuses.
Hmm, well, perhaps. By contrast, let's take a look at the the Sky+ remote, as it does everything - channels, volume, plus control of the hard drive recorder, and so must be the most complicated you can get:
Sky+ remoteHmm, 36 buttons plus two rockers. There's the facility to do text entry (via SMS-style keys). More than that, it's got some real human factors design in it: it's a remote designed to be held and brandished at the TV.
Conclusion? This must be a first iteration. Things must surely get better. And also: has Sony completely lost it?
Google unveils partnerships for its TV service Amazon's Video ...
Reporting from San Francisco — Google Inc. on Monday announced partnerships with media and Internet companies that will provide content for its new television service that debuts this month in devices made by Sony Corp. and Logitech International.
Amazon Inc.'s Video on Demand will give Google TV viewers instant access to more than 75,000 movies and TV shows for a fee and Netflix Inc. will make video streaming available.
"One of our goals with Google TV is to finally open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers," Ambarish Kenghe, developer product manager for Google TV, said in a blog post.
The partnerships are the result of talks with the major TV networks and cable and satellite distributors. Noticeably absent from the Google announcement are ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Many media executives are concerned that Google would cannibalize their broadcast businesses.
But Google is forging media partnerships: NBC Universal has teamed with Google TV to create CNBC Real-Time, an application with which viewers can track their favorite stocks and access news feeds on the TV screen; HBO will have programming for subscribers on an enhanced website; and the NBA has built NBA Game Time, an application for viewers to follow game scores in real time and catch up on the latest highlights in high definition.
Google and Hulu confirmed Monday they are in talks to bring Hulu Plus to Google TV. The $9.99 monthly subscription service would enable viewers to watch current shows from ABC, NBC and Fox, whose parent companies all share a stake in Hulu. Hulu Plus also offers an extensive library of content that includes all past seasons of such popular shows as the "X-Files" and "Arrested Development."
Google's television software, which it first announced in May, is being built into new Sony high-definition televisions and Blu-ray players and into Logitech set-top boxes that can be used with television sets. Logitech is planning to discuss the device, called Revue, at a news conference this week in San Francisco.
Sony is expected to roll out its Google TV devices this month. Google has pledged to make the software available to other manufacturers. Analysts say pricing will be a key hurdle. It's not clear that consumers will be willing to pay for new devices in their already cluttered living rooms.
Google is banking that television will be a new venue for it to sell advertising. The company has been meeting with advertising executives to explore ways to sell ads through Google TV.
jessica.guynn@latimes.com
Apple TV review, with pics
Today's column is a review of Apple TV. Here's a version with a few pictures of the devices mentioned and their remote controls:
With the appropriate level of awe and reverence, I carefully removed Apple's latest magical product from its apple-sized box and marveled at its sleek design.
Within a few minutes, the Apple TV device - a $99 puck that wirelessly connects a TV to the Internet, and became available last week - was streaming video into my living room.
The Apple TV connected to the Wi-Fi network in my house, plugged into the TV with an HDMI cable and, voila, there was a virtual video store on the screen.
Had Apple done it again? Did it revolutionize TV and reveal the future of video entertainment?
No, not really.
Compared with the growing pile of gadgets that already connect TVs to the Internet, the Apple TV is fairly limited. It's the smallest and most stylish of the bunch, but like with a high-heeled shoe, you'll trade some capabilities for those looks.
Apple TV displays a nice interface on the screen. You can search and read about videos you can stream from Netflix (for $9 per month) or buy or rent from iTunes. Apple is trying to get more shows on iTunes, but for now its video selection is more like that of a convenience store than a Blockbuster.
The name is a little confusing. Apple TV isn't a TV at all. It's mostly a wireless adapter.
Unlike a PC - or the Google TV devices launching later this week - the Apple TV doesn't have a browser or the ability to surf and select content from across the Web. Apple TV connects only to a handful of preselected Web services, including YouTube and Flickr. But you'll mostly use it with iTunes and Netflix.
This is not Apple's version of the TiVo. There's no way to connect a TV cable or antenna and no program guide. Apple started down that path in 2007 with the first version of Apple TV, which didn't sell very well.
The new Apple TV is closer to AirTunes, Apple's system for streaming music from a computer to a stereo with a $99 AirPort Wi-Fi adapter. Like AirTunes, AppleTV is a decent solution if you're a heavy iTunes user and want an easy way to connect to your home-entertainment setup.
If you're looking mostly to stream Netflix, you'll want to also look at options such as TiVo, game consoles, Blu-ray players, Wi-Fi adapters or TVs with built-in Internet connections.
Most every "connected TV" device has a standard suite of services, including Netflix, and some let you load more services and applications. In comparison, Apple TV feels like a closed pipe, or a turnstile. It's an alternative to a trip to the video store, but it's nowhere near a replacement for cable or broadcast TV.
More people are getting TV content from the Web, but it's still not mainstream. During the past three months, about a fourth of U.S. consumers downloaded content, including 15 percent downloading to PCs, 6 percent to game consoles, 4 percent to phones and 2 percent to set-top devices such as Blu-ray players or Apple TV units, according to NPD research.
One reason Apple's content is limited is that networks have wised up and are selling first-tier content through their own premium channels. They started the Hulu streaming service, which is offering a $10 premium plan with first-run TV shows this fall, but not on Apple TV.
I'm not too concerned about the TV shows, but I do like being able to stream photos from a computer to the TV. This doesn't work very well on Apple TV, from my experience and that of a bunch of people on Apple's support forums.
I never could get Apple TV to display my photos, even after nearly two hours on the phone with Apple technical support. The device showed photos from Web services like Flickr just fine, but I wanted to see pictures stored on a PC across the room, not on a data center in Quincy.
The support call was escalated to a nice supervisor who had me using the Windows Command line and MSCONFIG to alter the Windows XP PC I was using and disable its anti-malware software.
When that didn't work, he noted he's not really that up on XP (the most widely used PC operating system in the world?) and suggested I disconnect it all and plug the Apple TV directly to my new 802.11n router in the basement with a cable.
He also said the Apple TV wouldn't stream content from the iTunes server on my home server, and only stream from a PC on the network.
After that, I plugged in a similar gadget Sony just released, its $130 Network Media Player. A few seconds after I entered my Wi-Fi password, it found and displayed the content on my server, along with Netflix, a bunch of other services and a "coming soon" spot for Hulu Plus.
Another company, Roku, loaned me one of its new wireless TV adapters, which range from $60 to $100. It's a slightly larger box that does most everything Apple TV does, except Roku doesn't even try to share content on the home network. It's mostly for Netflix.
The Sony and Roku boxes displayed full 1080p content, while Apple TV only does 720p.
But still, the main reason I wouldn't buy an Apple TV is because I can't stand its remote control. It's a 4-inch aluminum wafer with minimalist buttons. You could think of it as the sleek wing from a tiny airplane, but it made me think of a parsimonious slice of Brie, or a shim that fell off a Prius.
The remote doesn't feel nice enough to fondle and fiddle with while watching a show. It's too small to palm and is easy to lose between couch cushions. It's also delicate; within a day in my house it already had little dings marring its case.
But the Apple TV did a perfectly fine job playing a Disney show for my family. Just like the six other devices already connected to my TV.
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